Hugvísindasvið Shifting Sympathies The Representation of the IRA in Borstal Boy B.A. Essay Heiða Lind Sigurbjörnsdóttir January 2015 University of Iceland School of Humanities Department of English Shifting Sympathies The Representation of the IRA in Borstal Boy B.A. Essay Heiða Lind Sigurbjörnsdóttir Kt.: 040990-2409 Supervisor: Alan Searles January 2015 ABSTRACT Brendan Behan’s autobiographical novel, Borstal Boy, was published in 1958 and it inspired Peter Sheridan to make a film of the same name in 2000. Although they share the same title, the novel and the film adaptation differ in some fundamental ways. The novel is an Irish Republican Army themed story which focuses on Brendan’s experience as a teenager in three prisons and his interactions with other inmates and prison officials. The film tones down the IRA’s influence on the story and transitions the theme to a bisexual love triangle. The purpose of the essay is to investigate some of the differences between the novel and the film and to examine the reasons behind these changes, especially with regards to the theme shift from the main character’s nationalistic ideology in the novel to his sexual orientation in the movie. There are other shifts that occur as the story progresses, Brendan’s idealised view of the IRA and by extension his perception of all Englishmen as the enemy is gradually eroded as his friendship develops with other boys at Borstal. To support my thesis, I look at how the IRA is presented in both works and how it influences the story and I compare some facts about Behan with the works to try to explain where the bisexuality theme comes from. The result is that the IRA’s influence on the story is more significant in the novel than in the film, which instead foregrounds Brendan’s sexuality. In both works, Brendan’s naïve nationalism and the influence that the IRA has on his young impressionable character can be sympathised with despite his being cast as an atypical hero. Furthermore, the IRA and the English are not presented as either good or bad in the story, indeed the portrayal of each shifts as the narrative progresses. Finally, the bisexual aspect of the film is inspired by facts about Brendan Behan’s own sexuality which came to light after the novel was published. This essay attempts to examine the shifts in sympathy from an ideological coming of age story in the novel to a sexual awakening theme in the film, as well as addressing some of the shifts in Brendan’s character in both works. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Summary ............................................................................................................ 5 2. The IRA’s Influence on Brendan ................................................................................. 6 2.1 Brendan as a Villain ................................................................................................ 6 2.2 Sympathising with Brendan .................................................................................... 8 2.3 The Shift from Criminal to Political Prisoner ....................................................... 11 3. The Depiction of the IRA in Borstal Boy ................................................................... 13 3.1 Negative Depictions of the IRA ............................................................................ 14 3.1.1 Negative Depictions of the IRA in the Novel ................................................ 14 3.1.2 Negative Depictions of the IRA in the Film .................................................. 16 3.2 Positivity Towards Brendan Being in the IRA ..................................................... 16 3.3 The IRA as Depicted Through Brendan ............................................................... 19 3.3.1 Shifting Depiction of the IRA in the Novel ................................................... 20 3.3.2 Shifting Depiction of the IRA in the Film ..................................................... 23 4. Theme Shift from Ideology to Sexuality .................................................................... 24 4.1 The Reasons Behind the Film’s Gay Theme ........................................................ 24 4.2 A Different Time................................................................................................... 27 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 29 6. Works Cited ................................................................................................................. 30 4 1. Introduction 1.1 Summary Brendan Behan’s autobiographical novel, Borstal Boy, was published in 1958 and in 2000 it was adapted into a film of the same name by Peter Sheridan. The story in both works begins in 1939 as the young Irish Nationalist Brendan is captured and put in prison for attempting to plant a bomb in Liverpool and it ends as he is released having served his sentence in Hollesley Bay Borstal in England. What happens between these events is different in each work. The novel is a coming of age story that portrays Brendan as a romanticized IRA sympathizer and focuses on his interactions and relationships with other boys and prison officials in the three different prisons at which he was interred. The film revolves around Brendan’s experience in the third prison only and it places the main emphasis on a failed escape attempt and a bisexual love story. The impact of the IRA’s presence in the story becomes less prominent in the film adaptation of the novel and the bisexuality aspect is foregrounded at its expense. By identifying some similarities and differences between the novel and the film this essay hopes to show how the IRA influences each work differently. Firstly, it addresses the IRA’s influence on the character of Brendan and how that influence changes as the story progresses; secondly, it shows how the IRA is depicted in various ways in both works; and thirdly, it explores the reasons behind the shift in theme from Brendan’s nationalism to his sexual orientation. It also addresses some facts about Brendan Behan which are not mentioned in the novel and how these facts may have influenced the two works. It is important to note that whenever I talk about Brendan I am referring to his character as he is depicted in the novel and the film as opposed to Brendan Behan, the author, whom I refer to by using his last name. 5 2. The IRA’s Influence on Brendan An important aspect to consider when assessing the influence of the IRA on the book and the film is the kind of character Brendan is and in what ways the film shows this influence differently than the novel. Obviously, Brendan was a real person but if we look at how he is depicted in the book and the film, it is interesting to see what kind of person the readers and viewers perceive him to be and whether he would be perceived differently if he had been incarcerated for something that was not IRA related. Brendan is the main character and in both the book and the film he is likeable, funny, and the one with whom the audience sympathise. He is the one telling the story and because the novel is written in the first person narrative we can see what he is thinking in between conversations. Even though Brendan comes across as a likeable character who elicits our sympathy, the fact that he is in prison for attempting to plant a bomb in Liverpool on behalf of the IRA must raise the question of whether he is actually a bad person or some kind of villain. 2.1 Brendan as a Villain If we look at the facts of Brendan’s story in the novel one could simply state that he was a 16 year old boy from Dublin who was a member of the IRA and went to a youth prison for attempting to plant a bomb in Liverpool. Without context, this information by itself may lead a person to perceive Brendan simply as a criminal or terrorist who was willing to blow people up. On the other hand, some might forgive him if they agreed that he was fighting in a war and may consider that his crime was a result of a misplaced sense of duty committed for his country. In that case, he would perhaps not be considered a bad person willing to murder people but rather, a patriot fighting for his country. The way Behan presents the events in the novel he romanticises himself and the IRA and leaves the impression that what he did to get him sent to prison was a noble act committed on behalf of the IRA. He makes himself sound like a patriotic hero. If Brendan had not been caught with the explosives it is fair to assume that he would have planted a bomb in Liverpool that might have killed people. This is argument enough for Brendan to be called a criminal who was ready to kill for the IRA or this “murder gang”, as the prison priest at Walton puts it when he is trying to talk Brendan 6 into denouncing the IRA (Behan 73). Furthermore, if the bomb had killed people, Brendan would not have looked at himself as a murderer according to what he says to inspector Vereker in beginning of the novel when he is being interrogated after he is caught with the explosives. The inspector tells him about sentences other members of the IRA have gotten for bombing murders and Brendan answers: “It was no murder” (Behan 31). So basically, Brendan was ready to kill people without considering it to be murder because he was doing what he felt necessary for the IRA’s cause. He was willing to kill people for a cause, for his country, but would not have killed without reason. This affords the audience a reason for not considering Brendan as a criminal or villain, he was simply a young idealistic man fighting for his country. But even for those who would still call him a criminal for being willing to blow up people, be it for a cause or not, we have to take a closer look at his reasons. Perhaps blowing people up for Ireland is not something he particularly wanted to do; but rather something he felt duty bound to do and was pressured into by the weight of history. The film starts the same way as the novel where Brendan is caught by the police with explosives in Liverpool.